Citadel Suit Formally Dismissed

BRUCE SMITH

Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, March 28, 2002

Associated Press Writer

Nine years after it was filed, a federal judge has formally dismissed a lawsuit that challenged The Citadel's all-male admissions policy and helped open the gates of the state military college to female cadets.

"The Citadel has eliminated to the extent practicable the discriminatory effects of the past" and female cadets are in the position they would have been had the school never been male-only, U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck wrote in the order filed late Thursday.

Shannon Faulkner sued in 1993 to become the college's first female cadet. She enrolled two years later under an order signed by Houck, but left after less than a week, citing stress and her isolation as the only female cadet.

The following year, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the all-male admissions policy at Virginia Military Institute was unconstitutional, The Citadel opened its gates to women.

Four enrolled that year and, in his order, Houck notes that this year 97 of 1,927 cadets are female. Twenty-five female cadets, the largest number ever, will graduate in May.

The Citadel admitted women under an assimilation plan monitored by the U.S. Justice Department and the court, and the only activity in the case in recent years has been the quarterly filings of the college's progress.

Both Justice Department and the school's attorneys agreed to the dismissal of the case.

"This action is a validation of our sincere efforts and substantial progress in coeducation," said retired Marine Maj. Gen. John Grinalds, the Citadel's president who credited the college board of visitors, its faculty and staff and its cadets and alumni for the progress.

"The Citadel has demonstrated good faith in its assimilation of women," Houck wrote in his 12-page order, which noted The Citadel has nondiscrimination and sexual harassment policies designed to eliminate any vestiges of the all-male college.

"The single-sex classes of cadets have all graduated and future classes will be trained and led only by coeducational classes that were themselves trained and led by coeducational classes," Houck wrote.

The order noted women are in leadership roles at the college and, this year, 70 percent of the senior women are cadet officers.

The college has six intercollegiate teams for women, 44 female varsity athletes and is nearing completion of a $750,000 women's athletic facility. College recruiting materials have been updated, and the Blue Book, which includes cadet regulations, uses gender-neutral language.